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id Software: Linux Hasn't Produced Positive Results

08-04-2012, 02:10 PM

Phoronix: id Software: Linux Hasn't Produced Positive Results

While id Software was known for years as being a Linux-friendly game company with providing native ports of their in-house titles with support for the id Tech engines on Linux, this is no longer the case. John Carmack, the founder of id Software, has lost his commitment to seeing Linux support...

I was saying the same thing since the announcement of Valve being interested in Linux.
Linux has 1% desktop market share, from this 1% take the gamers which in Linux are just in a VERY VERY small amount.
Now take from this gamers the ones that are ready to pay, it goes almost to 0%. Ubuntu Software Center can be as a good demonstration that almost all of the Linux users don't want to pay a cent for software.
Linux is not a good platform for developers to make money on. And IDSoftware had to feel it on their skin. Put in a lot of effort to port and have additional expenses for nothing.

The Valve way:
1. Sell games with Steamplay support - user (Mac/Windows/Linux) pays only once
2. Check plaftorm statistics

PS TTimo (only Linux-friendly man) doesn't work in id anymore...

This, id's linux support was half-assed at best. They had like one guy doing the porting, and hid a linux binary somewhere on their site. What the hell did they expect? I expect valve to be much more successful with their approach.

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I'm not one of those "this is the year of the Linux desktop" types but I do think Linux on the desktop has come a long way since 2007 when Quake Wars was released. Given a few more years of development, especially with support of Valve and a few others, Linux could become as viable as OS X for gaming. I don't think it will ever be the lead platform for a development studio.

VT-d with VGA passthrough is enough for me at the moment anyway.

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I was saying the same thing since the announcement of Valve being interested in Linux.
Linux has 1% desktop market share, from this 1% take the gamers which in Linux are just in a VERY VERY small amount.
Now take from this gamers the ones that are ready to pay, it goes almost to 0%. Ubuntu Software Center can be as a good demonstration that almost all of the Linux users don't want to pay a cent for software.
Linux is not a good platform for developers to make money on. And IDSoftware had to feel it on their skin. Put in a lot of effort to port and have additional expenses for nothing.

I donate to software projects I like/appreciate, and offering fun and polished games for Linux wins devs my donations. I will never buy a game from the Ubuntu Software Center, even though I usually run Ubuntu, because they don't give you a cross-distro application. Application freedom, the freedom to run your games and other programs on any Linux distro you want, is a requirement for me as I refuse to be bound to a proprietary Linux OS. If they provide straight-up normal binaries or cross-distro installers, I pay. Desura has provided those things with Oil Rush and Trine 2, so I had no problem paying for those games.

The biggest problem on Linux that I keep saying over and over again and it seems like no one listens or cares is standards, including software installation standards. If there is any chance that a particular library you are linking to isn't a solid standard and might not be on someone's installed Linux OS, you need to include the damn thing in your installer or make it easy (automatically, preferrably) to get it.

The most important thing for anyone's freedom in any area, hardware and software, with cars and computers and TVs and all devices, is standards. Standards = freedom, thus Linux needs more standards. I don't know why this is a hard concept for anyone who cares about openness and freedom to grasp. Instead, Canonical wants their own Apple iStore, as does Microsoft, to lock users to their platform and their platform only. None of them will get my money because of that (among other factors).

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I was saying the same thing since the announcement of Valve being interested in Linux.
Linux has 1% desktop market share, from this 1% take the gamers which in Linux are just in a VERY VERY small amount.
Now take from this gamers the ones that are ready to pay, it goes almost to 0%. Ubuntu Software Center can be as a good demonstration that almost all of the Linux users don't want to pay a cent for software.
Linux is not a good platform for developers to make money on. And IDSoftware had to feel it on their skin. Put in a lot of effort to port and have additional expenses for nothing.

Numbers from http://www.humblebundle.com/ prove you wrong, the population of Linux gamers is almost as big as Mac ones, but interestingly they tend to pay more than Mac and Windows community. It makes me believe there is a market waiting to be discovered.